Content Marketing Strategies of the 7 Media Giants

Believe it or not, we have all been swayed by some almost-invisible forces of content marketing, and we may not even have realized it. But once you do realize how it’s being used all around you, you’ll really see how powerful content marketing really is!

Before you think I’m crazy or some kind of conspiracy theorist, what I’m about to share with you comes from a very reliable source, the PBS series Frontline. Let me explain to you what I mean.

The merchants of cool

On February 27, 2001, the PBS series Frontline aired an episode called, “The Merchants of Cool.” This show revealed some of the forces that have been swaying us consumers for years.

The show revealed that corporations use focus groups and pay some companies (up to $20,000) to help them discover what’s cool on the streets. Why? They want to be the first to know the trends so they can ride them and leverage them to promote and sell their products.

While they didn’t talk about content marketing directly, I came to realize they were revealing, in essence, the content strategies of the seven media giants. I’ll show you what I mean; but first, does anyone remember the movie The Truman Show with Jim Carey?

In the movie, his decisions were influenced by others. Products were placed into his life. They manufactured experiences and ways to control him. And here’s the crazy part, he didn’t even realize it!

What if our lives were a little closer to this reality than we think?

In “The Merchants Of Cool,” Frontline explained there are seven enormous companies that are responsible for selling nearly all of youth culture (and really, all culture).

Robert McChesney, a communications professor at the University of Illinois, has said, “The entertainment companies, which are a handful of massive conglomerates that own four of the five music companies that sell 90 percent of the music in the United States… also own all the film studios, all the major TV networks, all the TV stations pretty much in the 10 largest markets. They own all or part of every single commercial cable channel.”

He went on to explain that these companies look at the teen market as part of a massive empire that they are looking to “colonize” and make money from, and the weapons they use to accomplish this takeover are their films, music, books, CDs, Internet access, clothing, amusement parks, sports teams.

Let me give you an example of how this plays out for one of Viacom’s biggest brands: Howard Stern.

The unbelievable reach and power of content marketing

Watch how Viacom leveraged Howard Stern across its properties with the use of content marketing:

His radio show is syndicated on 50 of Viacom’s Infinity radio stations (audio content).

His TV show (video content) was broadcasted weekly on CBS (owned by Viacom).

When he wrote a No. 1 best-selling autobiography (print content),it was published by Simon and Schuster. Guess who owns that company? Yep. Viacom!

Later, Paramount Pictures released a major motion picture (video content), based on Howard’s book, which grossed $40 million domestically. And who owns Paramount Pictures? You guessed it. Viacom. (You’re getting good at this!)

After the movie was released, copies of the home video (video content) made millionsat Blockbuster Video, which is owned by Viacom.

By the time they’re done, Howard was everywhere, and it feltlike he must have been the hottest thing out at the time even though it was all based on content fed to us by one company.

Really amazing isn’t it? Do you see why I said it’s the almost “invisible forces” of content marketing?

How you can apply this to your business

In the past, I’ve written about how businesses limit the value, usefulness, and portability of their content marketing. What does this mean? When you limit the formats your content takes, you limit its ability to travel to where all your prospects are, and you limit how valuable and useful it will be to your audience. For example, if you only create your content in text form, then you limit its value and usefulness to people who don’t, won’t, or can’t read.

The lesson to learn from the Big 7 and apply to your own content marketing efforts is to use every form of content (and every angle) you can to promote your product or service. In fact, the more ways you use content the better! You’ve likely heard of the marketing Rule of 7. Well, this is the new way to apply it with content marketing.

4 essential content types

Here are the four basic forms your content can take and the places those forms can appear.

Whenever you want to promote your products, don’t get stuck in your default content marketing format. Force yourself to create content in at least one of these other forms. But, as we’ve learned from the Big 7 example, the more the better.

Before I end, I have a confession for you:I don’t do this enough. I tend to rely on text because it’s the format that I’m most used to. But creating only text-based content limits meand my content.

My goal moving forward is to do a much better job of incorporating additional content formats, and I would encourage you to do this too. When you do, you’ll see the true power of content marketing that the Big 7 have been using all along, and you’ll see your product or service gain new attention and sales.

What about you? Do you use more than one form of content marketing in your business or for your clients? Please tell us in the comments section below.

Author: Scott Aughtmon

Scott Aughtmon is the author of the book 51 Content Marketing Hacks. He is a regular contributor to ContentMarketingInstitute.com and he is the person behind the popular infographic 21 Types of Content We Crave. He is a business strategist, consultant, content creation specialist, and speaker. He’s been studying effective marketing and business methods (both online and offline) since 1999. He has a unique perspective and ability to communicate ideas and concepts in a way that can help you climb to new heights.
Read more of Scott's insights on his blog. Follow Scott on Twitter @rampbusinesses.

Join Over 200,000 of your Peers!

I grew up with text too, and I’m most comfortable with that medium. Most of my clients’ clients are as well, which is why I focus on helping my clients publish in printed trade magazines. But Scott’s right — not everyone finds text a natural way to absorb information. One good thing about it is that the thought that goes into preparing content for one medium can be leveraged to prepare content for another. Another is that there are increasing opportunities to display those other types of content — in my case, every trade magazine has a website that is hungry for good, relevant-to-their-market electronic content. Third — reasonably good stuff is now so easy to produce, even using common tools like iMovie, GarageBand and SlideRocket. So, yes, Scott has re-ignited my resolution to get better at producing more than just words on a screen.

http://recessionsolution.wordpress.com/ Scott Aughtmon

Great points, Carl. Glad I re-ignited your resolution to get better at producing content beyond just words on a page or screen.

Scott: I enjoyed your post, but I’m not sure what you’re describing here is “Content Marketing.”

Traditional media have created content to aggregate and engage audiences, whereby marketers (advertisers) provide one revenue stream by paying for the right to interrupt this engagement to sell.

Content Marketing is a marketer creating its own content (i.e. media) to aggregate its own audiences.

Your “Howard Stern” scenario is a great example of integrating different media platforms for maximum content leverage, and that lesson is a powerful one for all marketers, including content marketers. But what Stern represents isn’t content marketing, it’s traditional media. The header “The Unbelievable Reach and Power of Content Marketing” is really economies of scale leveraged by traditional media.

Can this tale play out with Content Marketing? Absolutely. But it’s a revenue-enhancing strategy practiced by media barons since radio joined print in the media sandbox.

Not picking a fight, or being contrary, just clarifying. Thanks!

ContentKeith

http://recessionsolution.wordpress.com/ Scott Aughtmon

Hi Keith.

No offense taken. Thanks for posting your thoughts.

I would agree that this has been practiced by the “media barons” for a LONG time.

The purpose of my post is to cause us to view what’s been happening for a long time and see it through the paradigm of content marketing.

I define content marketing simply as: Content used to market a business, person, product, or service.

They are definitely leveraging content in the Howard Stern example.

But when you take into account how large these media giants have become, I think they have moved from solely creating content to gather audiences and “sell” them to advertisers. They are also using each of their own content “channels” to promote their products, such as Howard Stern.

The interesting thing to me is that they aren’t just putting ads on their “channels.” They are creating content for each channel – to promote their product in ways that move beyond ads and advertising.

It technically might be, as you call it, “integrating different media platforms for maximum content leverage,” but I still see it, in the most basic sense, as content marketing. And I believe when we see how far-reaching it is, then we can learn something from it.

I’m not picking a fight either. I think you’re points are valid. Just felt I just toss in my “2 cents.” Have a great day, Keith and thanks for posting your thoughts.